Core Values @ Dandy Eng
How we apply Dandy’s company values to build a top-tier engineering team
Our core values are the shared foundation that allow us to maximize the effectiveness, impact, and cohesion of our teams so they are always operating at peak effectiveness even as we scale at breakneck speed. In this article I’ll introduce each of our core values and explain how we apply them in our engineering teams.
Customer Obsession
Description: We work tirelessly to be beloved by our practices, our main focus is creating value for the dentists. We obsess over improving their customer experience — we don’t obsess over competitors or hopping on the next hype train.
We want to build a product that makes a 100x improvement on anything dentists have used in their practice before. To do this we start every conversation with figuring out how to provide the most value to the dentist, and then work backwards to find solutions to the challenges that prevent us from doing so.
We obsess over understanding dentist behavior and needs so we can solve the problems they care about the most. All Dandy engineers are encouraged to get user feedback as quickly and frequently as possible. We do that in a variety of ways: watching session recordings, beta testing with feature flags, talking to dentists directly, examining the metrics, and more. Ultimately, we want to be as in-tune with our dentists as possible so we can build solutions that fulfill their needs in the best way possible.
One of our initiatives earlier this year was to reduce the amount of restorative products (crowns, implants, dentures, etc.) that need to be remade; either because the order didn’t fit, missed instructions, was aesthetically problematic, or generally didn’t fulfill our promise of providing industry-leading quality. This is a terrible customer experience for the dentist because they will need to ask their patient to come back for another appointment once the appliance is remade, costing them revenue and patient confidence.
We identified the most common issues that lead to remakes and built features to intercept them earlier in our fulfillment flow. We bolstered our routing algorithm and exposed more robust data to our internal operations team. As a result of these efforts, our remake rate is now less than one-third that of a typical dental lab.
As Dandy grows, we have learned that our most important competitive advantage is providing the best customer experience possible. All the projects we work on, whether it’s improving quality control tasks or collecting more accurate patient data, are aimed at improving life for our dentists.
Owner’s Mentality
Description: We are all owners and have the freedom to make decisions that are the best for the business. Sweat the details. No one should need to tell you what to do. Be proactive, if you see an issue call it out and fix it.
All Dandy engineers are held responsible for delivering an amazing customer experience and continuously improving the health of our codebase.
This wouldn’t be possible if multiple meetings and approvals were required to make a decision, so we’re also given a ton of freedom to do what we think is best for the company. For some people this may seem daunting, but when your entire team has an owner’s mentality it’s amazing how much high quality work you can get done in a very short period of time.
Some examples of how this value plays out in our day-to-day work:
- If you find an issue you fix it right then and there, even if it’s not within the scope of your current task.
- If you learn about a debugging tool that will speed up everyone’s work, you can implement it immediately.
- If there’s a critical need not being met you can add it to the current sprint and start on it that day.
Two important things happen when our teams are held responsible for creating an awesome customer experience, and giving the trust and freedom to make it happen:
- Sub-par parts of the experience and codebase do not stay that way: engineers feel like it’s their mess to clean up no matter who created it — and they actually want to do it.
- We come up with more innovative solutions because everyone’s voice is heard and new ideas can be quickly tested without waiting for approval.
Always be Learning
Description: Dentistry is complex, and no one before us has put all the pieces together. It is unlikely we will get everything right the first time, so ask lots of questions, get to the root cause, and adapt at a breathtaking pace.
Here at Dandy we believe the fastest way to create value is through iteration, rapidly learning and adapting to discover and build the best solution.
A common statement you’ll hear in many software teams is that we should “slow down and do it right” — we reject the notion that this is even an option. We would tell you that it’s impossible for us to build solutions that “do it right in the first place” for multiple reasons:
- We may not know how to do it “right”, there could be several possible solutions or no clear solution at all.
- What’s “right” today may be wrong for tomorrow due to changes outside our control.
- Doing everything “right” today might take so long that the solution is invalid by the time it’s finished.
For these reasons we’re happy with constant improvement rather than expecting instant perfection. When we are faced with a new problem we strive to generate feedback as quickly as possible, shortening feedback loops to minutes or hours. The more we learn the better the solution becomes, and eventually we reach a point where we are satisfied and can focus on solving the next problem.
We do expect some mistakes to be made when rapidly iterating, but in general we think it’s more important to learn quickly than to have zero bugs. We’re also hyper-vigilant about not doing anything that negatively impacts our dentists, to do this we use a variety of tools: feature flags, continuous integration, and rapid rollbacks just to name a few.
Dandy engineers are also constantly looking to iterate on their personal skill set as well. In domains where we are strong, we continue to try new ideas from the industry to ensure that Dandy stays ahead of the curve. In domains that are less familiar, we ask tons of questions and get started as quickly as possible to start learning and improving rapidly.
From personal experience, I knew little to nothing about dentistry before my job here. Since joining Dandy 8 months ago, I have built a very strong foundation of dentistry knowledge; all my friends come to discuss their various dental surgeries like implants and root canals. They’re always shocked by how knowledgeable I am.
The bottom line is that Dandy engineers are always learning more about our technology, our customers, and our industry.
Be a savage
Description: Aggressively and effectively achieve your goals. Our business is the sum of hundreds of today’s and zero tomorrows. We are proactive, and we “will” things into reality. Operate with excellence, but recognize when perfection is the enemy of good-enough.
At Dandy we believe that the only way to build an industry-leading business is to hold ourselves to an industry-leading standard. We take this very seriously, only hiring people when we have high confidence they will raise the bar on one or more dimensions. One of the dimensions everyone in the company is expected to excel at is “being a savage”, which is our way of describing someone who:
- Executes with excellence to drive results, getting more done in a day than most do in a week by working smarter and with more focus.
- Uses their creativity to build structure and solutions in the face of ambiguity.
- Relentlessly follows through on commitments, understanding that building a business is about reliably getting things done no matter what.
Savagery is expected in every department at Dandy, and engineering is no exception. We expect everyone to be constantly learning and growing into a better engineer and teammate. We hold each other accountable for writing high-quality code that solves the problem and our rigorous (but highly constructive) PR reviews ensure it. We find that high expectations push us to be laser focused on finding the best way of doing everything, and we encourage each other to reach for peak performance everyday.
A team made solely out of high performers learns more from each other and gets more done — faster. People are motivated, excited, and having fun because we are all working towards the same goal — learning and growing. I’ve personally never been on such a talented team, working everyday with a group of friends who can help me be better, and who I can help in return. Every one of us gets to take on projects with very broad scopes that push our personal limits. Working this way means that everyone is advancing much faster than they would at other companies.
One of my personal favorite parts of being given a broad problem to solve is researching and designing how we want to build the solution. A recent example of this was when I was responsible for the launch of our clear aligners SKU. I got to design how we synchronize file uploads between the dentist’s personal phone and a desktop machine in their office, an integration with the manufacturer, and a portal the Dentist could use to sell the plan to their patients.
Low Ego
Description: We start all conversations with the goal of building the best business possible, not personal gain. The challenge of revolutionizing the dental industry is hard enough, so check the egos at the door, be prepared to admit when you are wrong, and get ready to sweep the floors if that will help us serve customers.
This value is the cement that keeps our house together. Having a low ego is important when working in a dynamic, high-performing team.
Our team has a deeply rooted feedback culture. Every three weeks, we have a feedback meeting where every engineer receives positive reinforcement and constructive criticism from other members of the team. We go around the room and discuss the feedback that each of us got and go on to provide similar feedback on how we are operating as a team. This space has created a culture of trust and low ego; feedback becomes commonplace and we understand that all feedback stems from a desire to make the team more successful.
This value also stands as a reminder to admit when you are wrong and to be open to new ideas and avenues of thought. We all come from diverse backgrounds and education, when knowledge is freely shared and received without inhibition we all grow together, faster.
After months of practicing ‘Low Ego’ with my teammates, I trust my peers wholeheartedly and am totally comfortable asking “I don’t know much about X, can you help me?”. Having low ego when working with brilliant teammates leads to incredible growth. This is probably my favorite part about my coworkers and working at Dandy.
In an upcoming post, I’ll be detailing our team’s operating principles that we use to embody these values on a daily basis!
